captainccs

A First Look At How the SEC's Rules Are Working

>>>On short selling in general, we believe that it is fine to short a stock if you think a company will likely go out of business. What's not okay is to short something in order to make it go out of business.


This is just not a practical approach to the problem unless you have a Thought Police Force that can actually look inside people's thinking (so much for privacy).

There needs be clear rules which, if broken, must bring retribution. Short selling, i.e. selling shares someone lent you, is perfectly legal and valid and there is no reason for interfering with this activity. The problem is NAKED short selling and the SEC has aided and abetted this criminal activity for years.

My solution is to hold both the broker and the short seller to account. If the shares are not delivered in the required time, the sale must be reversed and both the broker and the short seller should pay a file of, say, 25% each of the amount of the sale. That would stop NAKED short selling in its tracks.

The way I see it, not all NAKED short selling is because sellers think the stock is going to go broke. It could well be half of a hedged option trade. Stopping NAKED short sales would hurt many interests, which is likely why the SEC has not enforced the rules, it would hurt their regulated industry and regulation was never meant to protect the public. Anyone who still believes that, well, I have a couple of pretty bridges to sell them.